Before you read this chapter let me just say that I decided to state something. While sword slashes, magic attacks, and energy blasts are harmful they aren't necessarily always fatal. Now guns, like real guns with real bullets, they are as fatal as you expect them to be in real life, video game logic does not apply in that case. I say this to raise the stakes a bit. Keep that in mind as you read.

Also trigger warning for blood. There was a little blood in past chapters but there might be more than you are used to in this chapter.

(That doesn't sound very good now does it?)

Chapter XVIII -Deep Jungle (Part 4)

The gorillas did not understand what were these creatures that attacked them. They came out of nowhere and attacked from all over. A few got lost in the chaos but the rest stuck together as they fled to a small canyon. They were backed against a corner as their leader attacked the enemies. Kerchak did his best to protect his troop from the coming Heartless but there were just too many. As he was finishing off a Powerwild he looked to the side and saw the human that tried to harm Terk, the one Tarzan tried to defend, Clayton. He had his weapon aimed at his mate Kala. Enraged, he roared as he barreled his way towards Clayton. Clayton turned and saw Kerchak coming towards him and turned his weapon towards the alpha.

"Thunder!"

A bolt of lightning struck the earth between the two of them, halting them in their tracks. That didn't look like it came from the storm.

"Stop!"

Everyone even the Heartless turned and saw Sora, Koga, and the others come running in. Kerchak used this distraction to quickly flee with the rest of his troop.

The twins looked at Clayton with bewilderment. His skin looked slightly pale and there was a strange aura coming off of him. He glared at them with intense rage in his eyes.

"Clayton! What happened to you?" Sora said.

"Not Clayton!" Tarzan shouted. "*&&X% Not Clayton!" They were confused by what he meant but drew their weapons anyway.

"It was foolish to come here boy, now I have to tie up loose ends." Clayton gave an evil smirk as he looked to the Heartless. "Attack!" He ordered. All of the Powerwilds and Bouncywilds attacked.

"Stop Clayton and the Heartless will go away." Sora said before the Heartless attacked. Sora and Koga jumped and swiped at the Powerwilds that tried to do a leap attack. Donald used blizzard and froze several Heartless leaving them open as Tarzan stabbed at them with his spear.

Tarzan saw an opening and advanced towards Clayton who saw him approaching. He aimed his shotgun at him and Tarzan lunged to the side, avoiding the shot.

He tackled the hunter and landed a punch to his face. But Clayton didn't seem fazed at all, he push Tarzan back with superhuman strength, making him fall onto a pile of rocks. While he was stunned Clayton prepared to fire his shot but was distracted by a growl coming from the side. He turned only to get struck by Sabor. Tarzan watched with wide eyes as the two fought.

"What is Sabor doing?" Donald asked.

"Looks like he had enough of these Heartless like us." Koga said blasting another Powerwild. "I doubt he's actually on our side though."

Sabor jumped at Clayton and the hunter put his arm out in defense. His fangs dug deep into the flesh as Clayton cried out in pain. He forcefully ripped the leopard off, leaving a deeper wound, and threw him. The leopard quickly got up and prepared to dash at him. Clayton was quicker as he aimed his shotgun at him and fired. The shot hit the mark and Sabor collapsed dead.

The last of the Heartless were gone as the group faced Clayton who was backed against the same cliff wall that the gorilla's were at. He looked at his wounded arm as blood dripped from it. Suddenly the dark aura surrounded him and his wound slowly closed up. He grinned as he looked on at the others.

"Give up Clayton!" Sora said.

"You're not harming any more gorilla's!" Said Goofy.

"We already got rid of all the other Heartless!" Donald said.

"Maybe..." Clayton growled. "But you can't beat the best!" He said as the cliff behind him exploded. The group stared confused as there was nothing but an open area behind him and nothing else. Tarzan took the initiative and attacked but there was a shimmer in the air and a invisible force hit Tarzan and knocked him to the ground. Koga looked harder and saw the shimmering movement given by the raindrops falling on it. It seemed to resemble something like a large creature. Clayton jumped on top of the invisible force and seems to be riding it.

"It's an invisible Heartless!" Koga shouted.

"Let's go beast!" Clayton said as the invisible Heartless lunged at them. Koga back-stepped away but the others were hit head on. He saw Clayton prepared to fire at them and he used his Keygun to fire back at the Heartless while the other's get back up. It gave a shrill sound as it charged towards him. Koda took note where he think the face is located as he ran towards a vine and climbed up it to get on a nearby ledge. A light grew off where he thinks the eyes should be and fire two slow moving blasts at Koga. Koga blocked it with his Keyblade and it rebounded right back to the creature's face. It shrieked as it thrashed around and knocked Clayton off. Koga quickly added a thunder spell.

The invisibility effect wore off as it revealed it's true form. It looked like a giant chameleon with a big horn on its head and a Heartless symbol on it's chest.

Stealth Sneak

Koga felt triumphant that he got rid of the illusion. He jumped int preparation to attack the Heartless.

"Goodbye!"

Koga turned his head just in time to see Clayton aiming right at him.

*BANG*

Sora watched in horror as Koga's body lurched from the shot as at the same time Stealth Sneak swiped with his tail and slammed Koga against the wall hard. He fell to the ground limp. He groaned as he curled up in a ball.

"KOGA!" Sora screamed. He yelled as he dashed towards the Heartless. He rolled under a tail swipe from the creature and slashed at it's back. Tarzan attacked Clayton with an intense glare on his face. Goofy and Donald backed Sora up as they attacked from the front, all of them enraged at their hurt friend.

Donald jumped on Goofy's shoulders to get a better height as he unleashed a fire spell to it's face, and Sora did a thunder spell right on the horn of the Heartless. The combined assault seemed to do the trick.

They all backed away as Clayton breathed heavily. "This can't be happening." He said. He fixed his posture and aimed his shotgun at the group but before he did he saw Koga sitting upright aiming at the Heartless who was positioned right behind him. Through clenched teeth he fired at the Stealth Sneak right in the chest at it's Heartless emblem. It seemed to be the chink it's armor as it. Cried in agonizing pain. It's body convulsed as it lost it's balance and stumbled forward. Clayton gave a loud cry as it collapsed it's full weight on him, finishing the both of them. It released a crystallized heart at it and Clayton vanished into nothing. And as the last trace of the Heartless vanished it seemed that the storm just suddenly stopped as the noise of the jungle returned.

With the threat over they all turned their attention to their fallen friend. Sora ran ahead and knelt by his brother's side, he was bleeding from his right shoulder.

"Koga hurt..." Tarzan said walking up to Sora.

"Koga, are you okay?" He asked worried.

"Y-yeah, I think so..." He said with a hoarse voice. He looked pretty bruised and dirty from falling on the muddy ground. "That Heartless might've broken a few ribs and I think I might've scrapped my knee... Oh and I got shot." He said with a surprisingly calm face. "It's just a flesh wound see, I'm perfectly f- OUCH OWOWOWOWOWOW!" He yelped when Sora accidentally touched his wound. "Son of a beachball that stings, keep your hands to yourself!" He said irritated.

"Sorry, sorry!" Sora said putting his hands up and backing away slowly, he then looked to Donald. "Can you heal him?"

Donald nodded and pointed his staff at his arm. "Heal." He said as a green glow covered Koga's body. Koga's faced seemed to stir, the wound was still there but the blood stopped gushing out.

"Did it work?" Goofy asked.

"My body doesn't hurt as much but I'm sure my ribs are still broken." His legs wobbled as he tried to stand on his feet, he stumbled and leaned on Goofy.

"The spell isn't really meant for really big injuries so they take a while longer to heal fully. Though my magic can't fix broken bones. He's gonna need a doctor or something."

"Jane." Tarzan suggested.

Sora nodded before turning his head back to his duck companion. "Donald wait, I wanted to say that I.. I'm sorry that I yelled at you earlier."

"Me too." Donald said. "I shouldn't have yelled at you either. We'll find you're friends as well, okay?"

"Okay." Sora agreed smiling at his friend.

Koga coughed, still leaning on Goofy "Um, I think we should get going. I'm getting a little drowsy." Goofy put the injured Keyblade wielder on his back and carried him. They started making his way back to the camp.

"Oh, my shirt! It's a mess!" Koga complained. "Oh well, I got spare clothes in my pack." he murmured as he drifted out of consciousness.

So that was a chapter!

I hope I didn't freak you out too much with the blood. It's better than the first draft i wrote, it was much darker and graphic!

I try to think how exactly Cure spells and potions would work. I believe they only make your body heal faster and give you the energy to keep fighting. That doesn't work that well when it comes to the big injuries like broken bones or a large sword slice. For example if your hand gets cut off, Cure spell won't make it magically grow back, it'll make the wound close much faster instead, though I would recommend bandaging that before you lose a lot of blood.

Kingdom Hearts would be much harder if the Heartless were using guns!

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I'll see you next time...

HAVE FUN!